other learning group activities
Where possible the Learning Group will support - or engage in - research and other activities around three key thematic areas: policy processes, governance, impacts. Our resources for this kind of work are currently very limited but we hope to eventually establish a mechanism for supporting Learning Group members to develop activities - including workshops, dialogues and research - under these themes.
- Poverty Indicators for Protected Areas
The Secretariat of the Poverty and Conservation Learning Group and the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) have worked together to review existing methodologies and indicators that can be used to assess the impacts of protected areas on poverty. This work was carried out as part of PCLG's support to UNEP-WCMC Vision 2020 initiative. A draft report has been compiled which details all the methodologies of which we are aware - we would value your comments and additions to this - please contact pclg@iied.org.
A workshop was held at WCMC in February 2007 and a follow up event is planned for September 2007 to which PCLG members will be invited. The workshop report and presentations are all available here.
See:- PDF: Assessing the Human Impact of Protected Areas (614k)
- PDF: Vision 2020 Workshop Report (207k)
- PDF: Poverty Indicators for Protected Areas (52k)
- WCPA Task Force on Protected Areas and Equity
Following on from a side event held at CBD COP8 in March 2005, the PCLG Secretariat has worked with Care International, TILCEPA and the World Commission on Protected Areas to develop the framework for a new WCPA Task Force on Protected Areas and Equity which will have a particular emphasis on promoting social equity provisions within the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas. Ongoing support will be provided to the Task Force for regional and global meetings, information synthesis and dissemination.
A meeting of the African regional taskforce was held in Uganda in January 2007 and a workplan developed which you can download here. Meetings of the Asia group and the Latin America group will be held in June 2007 and September 2007 respectively. Please contact Phil Franks at Care International for more information about these meetings (phil@ci.co.ke).
See: - Conservation and Poverty Principles
The German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) organised a workshop on the Isle of Vilm in November 2006 to discuss the links between nature conservation and poverty reduction. During this event, a gap for principles to guide conservation activities in relation to poverty issues was found, and the need for further work on this issue recognized. Based on this, a second meeting was held on the Isle of Vilm in November 2007. During this second meeting, a draft document for guiding principles on the interface of nature conservation and poverty reduction was developed and their potential integration into key policy processes discussed. The PCLG Secretariat took part in the second meeting, and has been supportive of this process since.
See: - SAPA (Social Assessment of Protected Areas)
The Protected Areas, Equity, and Livelihoods (PAEL) Taskforce, the UNEP-WCMC Vision 2020 project, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) Poverty and Conservation Learning Group, CARE International and The Nature Conservancy have joined forces to identify and develop methodologies for assessing the social impact of protected areas, with the potential to incorporate these assessments into national and international protected areas policy. The goal of the overall process is to: ‘identify/develop and evaluate a range of methodologies and tools for assessing the social impacts of protected areas that enable conservation policy and practice to better adhere to the globally accepted principle that protected areas should strive to contribute to poverty reduction at the local level, and at the very minimum must not contribute to or exacerbate poverty’.
For more information on this process see the documents below.
See:- PDF: Livelihood impacts of protected areas: a global analysis of assessments and methodologies - Part 2 (1072k)
- PDF: Livelihood impacts of protected areas: a global analysis of assessments and methodologies - Part 1 (1072k)
- PDF: Towards an integrated system for measuring the social impact of Protected Areas (141k)
- PDF: The Costs and Benefits of Forest Protected Areas for Local Livelihoods: A Review of the Current Literature (641k)
- PDF: Protecting the future: Carbon, forests, protected areas and local livelihoods (488k)
- PDF: Workshop to Review Approaches, Methodologies and Tools for Assessing the Social Impacts of Protected Areas- February 2008 (982k)
- PDF: Towards an integrated system for measuring the social impact of Protected Areas (141k)
See our membership page to find out about becoming a member.